How do we save Western civilization?
For a moment, I would like to shift our attention from the regional West to the “Big West.” In your mind, go to Google Maps and start in Denver. Zoom out from the regional West to the full United States. Zoom out further, and you begin to see the entire Western world.
Just as the American West has changed, so has the Western world. In his new book War on the West, British author Douglas Murray summed it up perfectly: “In recent years, it has become clear that there is a war going on: a war on the West. This is not like earlier wars, where armies clash and victories are declared. It is a cultural war, and it is being waged remorselessly against all the roots of the Western tradition and against everything good that the Western tradition has produced.”
Now, Murray uses the term “culture war.” You may not like that term or say that it’s inaccurate, but he also suggests it is much bigger than that. Some use the term “moral and cultural revolution” for what is taking place. Murray helpfully reminds us that it wasn’t conservatives who started this war — it was the radical left that has been attacking every institution, attempting to turn the world upside down.
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The Western world, just like the United States, is at a crossroads. Will it come unglued? Or will it be renewed? To start, we must ask, what is civilization?
Civilization is a moral, social, structural, and cultural order. It is the heritage you and I receive when we are born. But it is also bigger than just laws, institutions, and an economy. It makes up the substructure of our society — or, as my wife says, it is a bit like DNA. DNA is vitally important, but you cannot see it with the human eye. It is under the surface, shaping absolutely everything, building proteins, tissue, and organs. Today, many in the Western world want to change the DNA of our civilization — invert the order and turn it upside down. They say they want to undo all the oppressions of our time. On their ever-growing list of “oppressions,” they seek to disrupt free markets, the family, family roles, biological sex, hierarchy of any kind, traditional morality, sexual restraint, nationalism, constitutionalism, and the Judeo-Christian tradition.
Western civilization is best defined as the foundation on which American and European cultures have been built. It was forged by the Jews, the inventors of Western culture. Through Abraham and Moses, they laid the moral foundations for this new civilization. It was forged by the Greeks and the Romans, who laid out the philosophical and legal foundations. It was forged by the Christian Church, which laid theological foundations emphasizing both faith and reason. The Bible was its founding document. By 893 A.D., the time of Charlemagne, it wasn’t called “Western civilization;” it was known as “Christendom.”
This may all sound a bit theoretical — you might ask, what has Western civilization ever done for me? This reminds me of Monty Python’s “Life of Brian.” In one scene, some first-century terrorists from the “People’s Liberation Front of Judea” ask provocatively, “What have the Romans ever done for us?” The other cell members respond with a long list of benefits from Roman civilization, to which the leader replies, “All right, but apart from sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, freshwater systems, and public health — what have the Romans ever done for us?”
Think for a moment of the many gifts of Western civilization. You could start with monotheism, creating a universal culture under a unifying deity and a single moral law. There is also the desacralization of the state. Many other civilizations dubbed the state as a god — not in the West. God is God, and the state is under God. Thanks to Western civilization, we have the rule of law, meaning everyone, including kings and governing authorities, is subject to it.
The West was the first to argue for the universal concept of the dignity of human beings, bringing an end to human sacrifice and infanticide. It abolished the institution of slavery twice. Add to the list a respect for property and property rights, which brought unprecedented political and economic freedoms, leading to amazing levels of prosperity around the world.
This worldview also made scientific inquiry and technological advances possible. The universal hospital system and the vast expansion of healthcare have led to extended lifespans — thanks to Western civilization. Consider also the promotion of literacy worldwide, the development of the best educational systems, and the creation of the university. What about high art, music, literature, and architecture? These are just some of the blessings that have come through Western civilization. It has an exceptional record for which we should all be grateful.
I’m not saying that the West has no flaws, sins, or blind spots. Unfortunately, some horrific sins have also come from the West. We are responsible for the heresy of Marxism, which has led to over 100 million people being slaughtered by state policies. We are responsible for atheistic secular states that produced Stalins and Hitlers. I am also not saying that other civilizations and their contributions are not important. God’s love and grace are not exclusively tied to the Western world — far from it! I’m not saying that we’re somehow immune from the laws of God or divine judgment. If we become rebellious and decadent, we will reap the necessary consequences. Nor are we invincible. Exceptional? Yes. Invincible? No. I am saying that Western civilization has done more good for more people — not just in the West, but throughout the entire world — than any other in history. It is the civilization that has enlivened the world.
But all is not well. On the one hand, there are troubling signs of drift, decay, and decline. The loss of faith that we see all around us feeds secularization and the belief that we don’t need the Bible, Christ, or the Ten Commandments anymore. We now have replacement faiths that are neither life-giving nor sustainable, such as nihilism, materialism, and secular liberalism. There is the loss of civic courage that we see in younger generations, as well as the general decline of patriotism. Western nations’ populations are declining while they are unable to control their borders. Additionally, the West is deconstructing the moral order and normalizing decadence. We have embraced what Solzhenitsyn called “destructive, irresponsible freedom.”
On the other hand, we are also observing an unrelenting assault on Western civilization from within. Thirty years ago, it was common for universities to teach a course on Western civilization. Now, not even history majors are required to study it. Things came to a head in 1987 when Stanford University debated whether or not it should be a required course. They decided it should not. There were demonstrations where crowds chanted, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Western Civ has got to go!” In the 90s, many universities followed Stanford’s example. They stopped teaching Western civilization and the Western classics. They said, “The West is something we are embarrassed by.” They were pushing a “culture of repudiation,” or anti-culture. If you oppose this new movement, you are labeled a racist, a white supremacist, or a Christian nationalist. Corporations are now joining in, openly ridiculing traditional values.
Convictional Jews and Christians are becoming the new intellectual outlaws. Civilization can break down from external attacks or from internal collapse. We are seeing a clash within our own civilization: pro-Western forces versus progressives who are calling for a new cultural revolution. Its agenda is clear — remove God, destroy the family, promote sexual liberation, subvert free markets, and expand the state.
The narrative is that Western history is nothing more than a catalog of crimes, and traditional culture is the source of oppression.
What do we do? How do we save Western civilization? How do we turn things around and become Western strong? The good news is that conservatives, independents, and Christians are starting to wake up and say “enough.”
Let me present three essentials for a counter-revolution. To begin, we must speak out and contend for truth on every level. Postmodernists are committed to a total war on truth. We must contend for the “truthfulness of truth,” human dignity, and the order of creation. It is time to start protesting the lies we are being compelled to embrace, the erroneous worldviews that do not lead to human flourishing, and the cultural suicide radicals are pushing us toward. We must move beyond just conserving something; we have to be willing to overthrow something. We need a counter-revolution for what is good, true, and beautiful.
But beware — if you start to speak out, you will be labeled and maligned as a bigot. Know that this is a common radical strategy because, so often, the left has given up on arguments. Instead, they call you names. Regardless, we must be willing to speak out and contend for truth.
Secondly, we must have children and impart our heritage to them. Peter Kreeft said the single most necessary thing we can do to save our civilization is to have children. If you don’t have a next generation to pass on your heritage, then you don’t have a civilization. Saving Western civilization starts at home. Our population is below replacement level, and 40% of children are born out of wedlock. We must view children as arrows to influence our culture, as Psalm 127 says. Raising children is also about transmitting the best of our culture, traditions, and past to them. As historian Hannah Arendt said, “In every generation, civilization is raided by barbarians — we call them children.” They must be civilized before it is too late.
Finally, we must return to the faith that brought sanity and life to Western civilization in the first place. We must go back to the spiritual roots that gave us ballast. Secular progressivism, liberalism, and philosophical materialism are not enough to sustain a civilization, and they are not enough to be a foundation for the American experiment. The founders knew that, and so we must return to God and the Bible. We need a religious awakening in our culture. We need a Christian Renaissance.
Let me make a special appeal to pastors: Be the Church and be bold with the Gospel and biblical truth. As Scripture says, “contend eternally for the truth.” Pastors, you have helped bring the Gospel to the ends of the earth, but now we need to give serious attention to how to reach the West again by re-evangelizing our own culture. Don’t be defeatist. Don’t give up and pull back. G.K. Chesterton said, “At least five times the faith has to all appearances gone to the dogs. In each of these five cases, it was the dog that died.” And Jesus said, “I will build my church. The gates of Hell will not prevail.”
I close with an appeal from the Hebrew Scriptures: Jeremiah 2:11-13. Judah was in rapid decline. Jeremiah prophesied against its immorality and idolatry. He warned of coming judgment. Here, Jeremiah thundered, “[Thus saith the LORD]: Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
Now, this is the Word of God through Jeremiah to Judah, but it may equally be taken as the word of God to the once-theistic Western world. We have changed the glory for that which does not profit. We have a defective reservoir that holds no water. We are running dry. And God again tells us, “My people have forgotten the LORD their God. Return to Me, for I am the fountain of living water.”
Ad Fontes — come back to the fountain of life. These are words not just for ancient Judah; they are words for a civilization at a crossroads, and they are the pathway to becoming Western strong.
Dr. Donald Sweeting is a noted educator, minister and author. He currently serves as Chancellor of Colorado Christian University. Previously he served as the president of Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida, and prior to that he served as a pastor for 22 years. He holds a BA from Lawrence University, BA and MA degrees from Oxford University, and a Ph.D. from Trinity International University. He is the author of several books. His writings have been widely published by Townhall, Fox News, The Washington Times, The Jerusalem Post, and many other outlets. Dr. Sweeting and Christina have three adult sons and a daughter. He regularly posts his thoughts at donsweeting.com and can be followed on Twitter @dsweeting.
